Yankee Doodle Drumming

Supriya and I spent about an hour this morning working on "Yankee Doodle Dandy", and she made some serious progress. We worked on understanding the structure of the song. She had not connected the words "verse" and "chorus" with parts of the song, so we started there. She already has 2 or 3 drum patterns under her belt. We labeled 2 of them #1 and #2 and assigned #1 to the verse and #2 to the chorus. Yesterday we had worked on adding a flourish at the ends of the verse and the chorus. With all this, the drumming part became rather complicated, but after a couple of tries she mastered it. I want to run this a couple of times today to cement it in.

I realized something else: our breakthrough happened when we labeled the two patterns #1 and #2, and also when I clarified what verse and chorus mean. The labels are short-hand for a concept or an idea, and when the lable is internalized, you can use that as a building block for the next level.

Deepak Chopra on Unschooling?

Recently I watched Deepak Chopra's DVD called "7 Spiritual Laws of Success". I am not as skeptical about this kind of books as I used to be (I will call it maturity if you don't mind!). The talk ends with a message that resonated with me. He says, and I am paraphrasing here:

Real success is about realizing and making most of the gifts you came into this world with. Once you keep that big picture in mind, the rest follows.

That's our thinking behind our unschooling adventure as well...

NEA’s Opinion of Homeschooling

NEA’s opinion of homeschooling: 2007 - 2008 NEA Resolutions

B-75. Home Schooling: The National Education Association believes that home schooling programs based on parental choice cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience. When home schooling occurs, students enrolled must meet all state curricular requirements, including the taking and passing of assessments to ensure adequate academic progress. Home schooling should be limited to the children ofthe immediate family, with all expenses being borne by the parents/guardians. Instruction should be bypersons who are licensed by the appropriate state education licensure agency, and a curriculum approved by the state department of education should be used.

The Association also believes that home-schooled students should not participate in anyextracurricular activities in the public schools.

The Association further believes that local public school systems should have the authority todetermine grade placement and/or credits earned toward graduation for students entering or re-enteringthe public school setting from a home school setting. (1988, 2006)

Not much, in other words...

Robotics and Garage Band

Today it was Day 3 for both the garage band and the robotics class, and I came home pumped! I felt that a breakthrough was achieved today by the band. The kids are all very musical, but were basically floundering because of lack of leadership and focus. I was planning to stay out of the band but felt compelled to step in. Once I suggested they try something they already knew, the ball got rolling and some fine music was made (so what if it was only 15 seconds!). I feel like I have to provide the leadership until the band members are ready to do it for themselves. For now I am going to insist that they play something the majority of them know. There will be plenty of time later to write original music! These are 8- and 9-year olds after all...

Then came robotics where they programmed Spike to go and sting. There was a great sense of fun and excitement amidst much giggling and laughter. I wish I had a video-camera to capture the energy!

Follow-up to Tim Ferriss Post

John left a comment on my previous post about Tim Ferriss's post (Thanks, John!). I agree with John that we can certainly find activities where you will not be a world-class performer after a year's immersion. On the other hand, I do have a couple of nuances to add to the original post:

• The issue of relative versus absolute improvement: When we talk about "world-class" performance, we have a certain absolute standard in mind (whether or not such a thing exists out there!). We can certainly name many fields where you will not be able to ascend to those levels. OTOH, if you did spend a year of immersion into any field, you will most definitely improve your performance relative to where you were when you started. I do not see any holes in that statement; do you? For all practical purposes this is what we typically seek - to be significantly better at something. No? (I want to be a really good roller skater, for example. I do not particularly care about becoming world-class.)
• How good do you have to be to be called "world-class"? I am talking about quantification here. Top 10%? 5%? 1%? 0.1%? Obviously this is an arbitrary cut-off. I do not think it is logical (or fair) to equate being "world-class" with being a "star". At a given point there will be only one tennis champ, but there will be a much larger number of world-class players.
• Another question to think about: are there certain fields where it is possible and others where it is not? In other words, is there a taxonomy of fields along the "possibility of becoming world-class in one year of immersion" dimension? In competitive sports there is usually a ranking available so it will be generally possible to quantify world-class, howsoever you define it. On the other hand whom do you call a world-class computer programmer?

More Tapatan

Supriya and I played Tapatan again in the morning, and she beat me soundly again. She showed me a particular sequence of moves that always leads to a win and explained to me how it works. Then she repeated a couple of times, "I can't believe I am teaching you!"

"Give a Laptop and Get One"

Read about the latest development in the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) story. This is a grand vision which I want to be a part of.

Tapatan

Supriya and I have been playing Tapatan for the last couple of weeks. This is a Filipino strategy game, sort of a cross between Tick-tac-toe and Nine Men's Morris. Very simple rules leading to a rather challenging game - the ideal combination as far as I am concerned. Supriya is naturally talented in strategy games and Tapatan is no exception. Last night we played a couple of rounds and she beat me both times (7-4 the first time and 3-2 the second).

Power From the People!

This website sells plans for a Pedal Powered Generator. Basically it's a stationary bicycle that generates electricity that can be used to power "LED lights, the monitor on my computer, my cell phones, and many other small battery-powered things". As he puts it,

"It is the most inspiring workout you can imagine."

The plans cost $50 and it costs another $230 to build the thing. It's going to be a great project for us after we move to Camelot next year. I want to make a conscious effort with my family to reduce our energy consumption by using super-energy-efficient appliances. And then supplement our grid-usage by renewable sources - including this generator (which will also get us regular exercise!)

Another Great Post by Tim Ferriss

Here's the link to "The Top 5 Reasons to Be a Jack of All Trades". This statement caught my eye:

Based on my experience and research, it is possible to become world-class in almost any skill within one year.

Nothing in my personal experience tells me otherwise. I think the key is immersion. I know the speed with which kids learn new skills (be it a new language or skating or dancing) when they are immersed in that culture. I know us adults have the same potential if only we stop judging ourselves too quickly and too harshly.

And I absolutely love this:

Be too complex to categorize.

"This I Believe" by Tony Hawk

Manisha emailed me this absolutely wonderful piece by Tony Hawk, professional skateboarder, on NPR. He ends with:

You might not make it to the top, but if you are doing what you love, there is much more happiness there than being rich or famous.

(On the other hand, there seems to be no other way of becoming rich or famous than by doing what you love! It is necessary but not sufficient...)

Synchronized Poomsae

We did our first Taekwondo demo last Sunday. Master Freddy had signed up at the carnival at the D'Youville Senior Care Center in Lowell. Master Antonio started us off by warming us up with some kicks, punches and blocks. After that we lined up and did Basic Poomsae. Then came the highlight for me. Supriya and I did the 3 poomsaes we know: Basic, Taegeuk 1 and Taegeuk 2. By now we have done it tens of times, and we do it with very good synch with each other. I am very happy with how it went. After that the kids broke boards with jumping side-kicks and later with bare fists. It all looked very impressive and we got a lot of kudos. The weather was cloudy and cold and windy. It rained quite a bit before we started as well. But the kids had a grand time anyway playing on the carnival jumping thingies.

Robotics and Seymour Papert

On Thursday Supriya had her second robotics class. She and her teammate actually programmed a Mindstorms NXT robot. They made the robot go around in a square and then an equilateral triangle. I am thrilled by this whole activity; Supriya is engaged but not thrilled. As the instructor points out, the goal of the class is actually to teach programming using robots. That brought to my mind Seymour Papert's "Mindstorms: Children, Computers and Powerful Ideas" (I don't think it's a coincidence that Lego chose to call their kit Mindstorms). We sold this book when I worked at the Holt (& Growing Without Schooling) bookstore 12-13 years ago, and Manisha and I remember being impressed by Papert's ideas on using Logo (the visual programming language he invented at MIT's Media Lab) and turtle geometry. Well, it's a decade later and our child is actually learning math and programming using those concepts. That's so cool. I have brought out my copy of Mindstorms and we plan to reread it.

Aseem Starts Soccer

Supriya and I are back from the Taekwondo demo team practice and I am settling in in front of my computer. I hear Manisha pull in the driveway and Aseem bounds in. He stands there in front of me beaming with pride, looking so professional in his new soccer regalia - the new grey jersey, black shorts and the grey stocking pulled over his shin-guards. The first thing I do on reflex - before Manisha even stepped into the house - is to take this picture. His smile, the energy, the pride he exudes are just too priceless. He keeps saying he scored two goals (apparently nobody else on the team scored any), a major highlight.

Great Post by Tim Ferriss

Tim Ferriss's latest post is right on the money (pun intended, I guess). Time is indeed the currency of happiness.

"Virtual schooling growing at K-12 level"

I don't know what to make of this story on Yahoo! News today (apparently one of the most-emailed, as well). All possible viewpoints and red-herrings - including the familiar "socialization" - are aired in the discussion! I am of course all for the expanded choices this creates for everybody.

Robotics

Supriya has caught the Robotics wave. She had her first class yesterday. The instructor talked for the whole hour - and the 7 kids, ages 7 to 10, listened with rapt attention! The next 7 sessions are going to be hands-on programming. After coming home Supriya was eager to do the homework - looking up 2 websites related to robots. I brought up the ASIMO site by Honda, and she spent the next couple of hours checking out everything she could there. Now she is after us to buy her the Mindstorms NXT kit (which the class is based on). We are going to wait and see how the whole class goes before buying the expensive kit.

Catch a Wave

I have found the perfect theme song for unschooling. It's the Beach Boys' "Catch a wave". The chorus is:

Catch a wave and you'll be sitting on top of the world!

Ain't that the truth, metaphorically speaking! That is my version of the world anyway. The idea is to follow your interests or "waves". Some of the these will be small and inconsequential. In fact most of them will be small and will not last long or go deep. But then there will be the occasional monster wave that will take you to places you'd have never dreamed you could go. The problem is that you will not know beforehand which wave is which. Is this going to be an ephemeral interest or is this going to last longer and become something bigger? So what we are going to do is take all the waves seriously. Today it is Taekwondo and Harry Potter and robotics and soccer and whittling and stunt-biking and hiking and singing and playing spoons and writing and playing MarioKart and skateboarding. Some of these may last a lifetime; others may wither away. Who knows? For now the goal is to just catch that wave and enjoy the ride.